Introduction

As the more astute reader might deduce from the title, this is an account of my time spent as a ship’s engineer with F. T. Everard of Greenhithe, Kent. It covers the period from September 1978 to December 1983 during which time I travelled extensively around Europe and Africa. Everard is predominantly a near-trade/coastal shipping business operating small ships, and working on the smaller ships wasn’t really what I wanted when I first joined the merchant navy as a lad. This was because like many a keen young merchant seaman I wanted to sail on the biggest and most up-to-date ships of the day. In hindsight, however, I’m glad that my first taste of life at sea was on the smaller vessels. This is because the majority of really big ships are either tankers, bulk-carriers, or containerships, all of which share roughly the same routine of loading and discharging within twenty four hours at terminals that are usually a long way out of town before immediately heading back to sea. What that means, of course, is very little time to go ashore. Life on a small tramp-ship, however, is very different. You travel to a much greater variety of places, you don’t know where you will be in a month’s time, and you can spend anywhere between one day and several weeks in any given port. All in all it’s a much better way to see and experience the world.

Although a former ship’s engineer, I have deliberately chosen not to write about the practicalities of marine engineering, mainly because there are many excellent books dedicated to that particular subject. Besides, at the end of the day work was work, and I enjoyed my time off far more—which is kind of why I never really took the job that seriously. So this is a description of the things that happened when I wasn’t up to my neck in all things diesel; essentially drinking, larking about, getting into the odd fight, and doing what young men do. Because of this it is bawdy at times, and some of the language offensive, but that’s how it was: put a group of predominantly young men in close quarters with each other, add cheap and readily available alcohol, remove the constraints of family and society, and a certain amount of such activity is bound to take place. Moreover, although while writing this I’ve tried my best to relate things as they were, the drugs and the alcohol may have combined to dim my memory and confuse events somewhat. I suppose that at this point it would be probably appropriate to say something about the folly of youth, but as I thoroughly enjoyed the folly of my youth and lived life to the full, I won’t bother; indeed, I wish I could do it all again!

On a final note, during my time with Everard I worked with a lot of good people and made many good friends; on the other hand the man-management skills of some of the characters I was forced to work with also left a lot to be desired, and that showed in my attitude to both them and the job. So out of respect for the privacy of my friends and former friends, names have been changed but the events remain true; for those with whom I had no such affinity I offer no such courtesy.